Exploration and production companies, usually just called E&Ps, are the firms that find and pull oil and gas out of the ground. Before an E&P drills anything, it usually buys a picture of what lies beneath. That picture comes from seismic surveyors, the companies that bounce sound waves through the earth and read the echoes to map rock layers, faults, and potential reservoirs. It is a quiet but essential step, and it is the exact step the “$150 Trillion Birthright” presentation tries to turn into a story.
The presenter is Jim Rickards, a former general counsel at Long-Term Capital Management and a best-selling author on currency and geopolitics, who runs model Press’s Strategic Intelligence letter. His pitch argues that President Trump “opened 650 million acres of federal land containing an estimated $150 trillion in buried minerals,” and that mining companies will be “legally required to find the exact location of these mineral deposits BEFORE they can dig a single hole.” From there, the ad pivots to three companies that sell the discovery technology. Understanding the E&P budget is the key to seeing whether that pivot makes sense.
How Survey Firms Get Paid
Seismic surveyors sit upstream of the E&P. When oil prices rise and exploration budgets grow, E&Ps order more surveys and more equipment, and the surveyors book revenue whether or not anyone ever strikes oil. That is why they are often described as picks-and-shovels plays: they are paid for activity, not for outcomes.
This is the strongest part of the pitch, and it is worth stating plainly. A surveyor does not need a single discovery to win. It just needs customers willing to spend on the search. The thesis’s problem is not the mechanism but the customers it assumes.
The Three Names and the Scoreboard
The presentation names three “MDP” picks, short for mineral discovery technology. They are Geospace Technologies, a maker of land and marine seismic equipment with about $116 million in trailing revenue; TGS ASA, the Norwegian energy-data firm formed from the 2023 TGS and PGS merger; and MIND Technology, a maker of offshore seismic hardware under the Seamap brand with about $46 million in annual revenue.
Since the tease, Geospace is down 73.8% and MIND is down 56.8%, while TGS is up 8.9%. That is one single-digit gain and two large losses, set against promised returns of “1,520% gain potential” to “4,800% gain potential.” The deeper context for these names lives in our deep-sea mining explainer and our critical minerals strategy explainer.
Why the Customer Base Matters
The honest read is that these are oil and gas seismic companies whose revenue tracks energy exploration budgets, not mineral discovery. TGS and MIND both had their moment during the 2010 to 2012 oil bull market and gave most of it back as the cycle turned. Framing them as a pure play on a mining boom means betting that a small sliver of their business becomes the main driver, a leap the ad never supports with numbers.
The institutional-ownership claim is another tell. The pitch says one pick has ownership of “only 8%,” implying early entry. Our teardown found the real figure near 67%. That changes the “undiscovered” story considerably. We covered the rare earth and discovery angles in more detail in our AI mineral exploration coverage and our rare earth stocks coverage.
The Spending Cycle That Actually Drives Revenue
The upstream spending cycle is what actually drives these survey firms. When oil prices are high and balance sheets are healthy, E&Ps raise their capital budgets, order more wells, and buy more seismic data ahead of drilling. When prices fall, the first thing cut is exploration, because the quickest way to protect cash flow is to stop spending on the search. That is why seismic and survey revenue is often called a leading indicator with a lag: it rises early in an upcycle and falls early in a downturn. The Birthright pitch asks you to believe the same machinery will be driven by mining exploration instead, and that the budget comes from a federal land opening rather than the oil price. The first part has a kernel of sense, since mineral explorers also run surveys before they drill, but the second part is where the stretch lives, because these companies’ actual order books have followed energy spending for decades. Watching the oil exploration budget, not a mining headline, is still the more reliable read on their revenue.
A Fair Frame for E&P Investors
None of this means the companies are bad businesses. Geospace, TGS ASA, and MIND Technology are all real, established survey and equipment franchises, and a genuine upswing in energy exploration would help all three. The offer behind the pitch is The Situation Report at $1,995 per year with no refunds, and the headline forecasts are promotional numbers, not promises. If the energy-services cycle turns up, these are interesting but speculative ways to play it. If it does not, they are cheap for a reason.
Ready to see the research? Click here to view the American Birthright presentation.
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